The crossword puzzle is a word game, which is a unique linguistic and cultural phenomenon of Chinese characters. Mainly according to the characteristics of complex strokes, relatively independent radicals and changeable structural combinations of Chinese characters, it is set in various ways, such as clutch, loss-increasing, pictographic and knowing. There are broad and narrow definitions of crossword puzzles.
A word puzzle in a broad sense refers to all word puzzles, such as word puzzles, word puzzles, sentence puzzles and so on. In a narrow sense, a crossword puzzle refers to a riddle of Chinese characters. The latter pays attention to the combination of writing forms and the collocation of radicals, and describes the components of Chinese characters from the perspectives of form, function and meaning. The expression of words is short, and the rhetorical skills of writing words and riddles are also high.
Crossword puzzles are riddles with one or several Chinese characters as the answers. The writing of this riddle makes use of either the word-formation rules of Chinese characters or the characteristics of Chinese characters in form, sound and meaning, which is both interesting and informative. A crossword puzzle consists of a puzzle maker and a guessing player. As the name implies, it is a jigsaw maker and an artificial jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle must be clever, and then the guessing person solves the puzzle. In China, it has a long history, spread widely, varied types and endless changes. It is very popular among literati, and it is also used in political struggle and divination.
The origin of crossword puzzles
The origin of crossword puzzles can be traced back to ancient China, which was first seen in The Book of Songs. It is said that in the Zhou Dynasty, cultural examinations were adopted when selecting officials. One of the questions is to show bamboo pieces with different characters, so that candidates can guess "Tibetan" according to the prompts, which is considered as the embryonic form of crossword puzzles.
In the Han Dynasty, crossword puzzles gradually became popular and became a way for literati to entertain and compete. In the Tang Dynasty, crossword puzzles reached their peak, and there were even special crossword clubs and competitions. During the Song and Ming Dynasties, crossword puzzles also attracted the attention of some literati and calligraphers. They are not only creators of crossword puzzles, but also hide their names and works in crossword puzzles to show their talents.
With the passage of time, crossword puzzles have gradually evolved into a form of folk literature, which has been passed down to this day. In crossword puzzles, it is interesting to ponder the language and challenge the thinking, and it also promotes the inheritance and development of Chinese character culture.